


To Stay Next to You

by lifeinapizzabox



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: A gift for Flashvibe Secret Santa!, Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, M/M, meant to be fluffy and slow and incredibly cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:33:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9076702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeinapizzabox/pseuds/lifeinapizzabox
Summary: Cisco has feelings for his lab partner that he isn't exactly sure how to deal with. Barry's plan to distance himself from his own is thrown at the window at first opportunity.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [weallfalldowneventually](https://archiveofourown.org/users/weallfalldowneventually/gifts).



> This took several turns as I was writing it, but I hope it's still enjoyable!

“Leave me alone, Caitlin,” Cisco said, directing his words to his friend without looking up from what he was working on. She was leaning against his desk, staring down at him with that expectant look on her face—he didn’t need to see it. This was far from an unfamiliar place for them to be in.

He knew what she was going to say, and he didn’t need to hear it. Not again. Not right now.

“What? You’re going to skip class and keep avoiding him? That is a great way of handling this, Cisco.”

“The ‘admiring from afar’ approach tends to work out for you, doesn’t it?” he asked in response, tucking his hair back behind his ears. Always in the way.

“That’s-that is an entirely different situation,” she sputtered indignantly in response. “Not everything falls into place like it did with Ronnie,” Cisco gave her a pointed look at the wistful way she always said his name, but she continued on unfazed, “and it certainly won’t if you keep up with this avoidance route.”

“I can’t avoid him,” Cisco answered, pushing back in his chair and letting it take him over to his bed to grab a textbook he’d left there. “He’s my lab partner. Not an option. I don’t need to go to the lecture; this is more important,” he said, indicating the mess of pieces in front of him that he’d just had printed and was working on fitting together.

“This isn’t anything,” she grumbled, but he was back to work, ready to ignore her and his incessant crush on his dork of a lab partner.

 

* * *

 

Barry dumped his bag on the ground and landed face first in his bed with a groan. To call it a graceful maneuver would be a complete overstatement considering its half-lofted state and his remarkable inability to tell where his limbs began and ended.

He rolled over to get more comfortable, or at least entirely on the mattress, strongly considering taking a nap to get over the absurd disappointment that came with Cisco not being in class today.

Of all things.

He didn’t know why he expected him to be there. While he was far from struggling, there was no question that his lab partner was stronger in physics than he was and didn’t need to be. What was different?

Lab. It was a lab day. He was always here on lab days because they had the two essentially back to back.

Barry sat upright as if he’d been shocked, scrambling off his bed to grab his bag—and shoes. He needed shoes. The only reason he ever made it to their class on time was because he had to go straight there, and it was a walk he usually didn’t make alone. Today was going to be an entirely different story.

* * *

 

Cisco was moving incredibly slowly through the motions of the assigned lab for the day, pulling supplies and setting up instruments at what some would call a normal place. They usually breezed through it, and while he was far from incapable, he was a bit disheartened by the fact that it looked like he was going to be completing the lab on his own. Fifteen minutes in meant it should be time to give up on the idea that Barry would be coming.

Which apparently meant he was going to worry about it instead. Was he sick? Had he decided to drop the class? He couldn’t possibly be failing, but what if he decided to switch based on how Cisco had been slipping lately? Maybe he wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was being—something that was entirely possible.

His mind trailed to last week, reaching for a component that he had distinctly heard Barry say he had, touching his hand for a second too long, and quickly pulling away with a hasty, mumbled apology. Surely that couldn’t be it. He could be bold, but he needed this grade and he liked knowing what he was getting into and…and they were all what Caitlin would label excuses, sitting on his desk and picking through his candy stash for her favorites.

Apparently none of them were true, entirely unwarranted as she also would have pointed out.

Barry had burst through the door, looking entirely frazzled and like he had run to get here. His eyes seemed to be searching the room despite the fact that Cisco was in their usual spot, and he was about raise a hand to call him over when he spotted him.

“I am so sorry,” he started off, talking too quickly and continuing before Cisco could say it was no big deal. “I forgot we had lab and went home because you weren’t there—not that I can’t handle my schedule without you, we have a number of separate ones, it’s just we usually walk together and I blanked. And you apparently have none of those issues getting yourself to class.”

He was red, and Cisco was trying hard to convince himself that he wasn’t becoming redder and it was just from the cold and what he was now convinced had to be running. There was so much about that he couldn’t afford to read into. It was an apology. They were lab partners. That’s what it came down to. Clearly.

* * *

 

“It’s fine. We all have those days.”

Barry looked up from the fight he was having with his jacket—put on impressively wrong in his haste to get out the door—and saw Cisco smiling at him. At least he had that going for him.

He gave a sheepish smile in return, undoing the last button with slightly less trouble and taking the stool next to him. He wished he could forget everything he’d just said, the rush of words admitting far more than he would have liked. They were lab partners, perhaps approaching friends, but he was trying to keep Cisco at a bit of a distance because he was afraid of these things spilling out and ruining what they had going.

He had no obligation to go to class and certainly not one to walk him to the next. He really couldn’t believe he said that out loud. There wasn’t much else he could do at this point besides jump right in, calling any attention to it would only make it that much worse.

“So,” Barry started. “Catch me up?”

* * *

 

Even with Cisco’s slow start, they still managed to be among the first out that day, hitting their stride only a few minutes after Barry’s delayed arrival. He shut his notebook with a satisfying thud and moved to shove it in his bag while Barry emailed them both the taken data.

He could just leave. He usually did, but part of him had felt lacking without their usual walk, too. It was Barry calling it out that had brought it to the forefront, but Cisco hadn’t been able to shake the thoughts for the entirety of the lab. It probably hadn’t helped their speed nor had an exceedingly amplified amount of his lab partner’s slips, nearly dropping instruments or failing to start the log.

It had been an extended lab, but he still felt cheated for time.

When Barry looked up, there was a flicker of surprise on his features, probably at the fact that he was still there, patiently waiting. He should have left. He didn’t have a plan. He didn’t even have an answer as to why he might be still here, watching on. There was always a trust between them that things would get done, and it wasn’t like he was babysitting to make sure that everything was done correctly which after their day could be a valid assumption. He had to say something.

“Well, I guess we’re set.” Maybe this was why he didn’t hang around. He had a bit of time and he had no idea what to do with it.

“Yeah, you should have everything if you want to check,” Barry replied, scratching at the side of his head with the computer shutting down behind him. “It went through on my end.”

“Oh, I’m sure. I believe you.” Cisco paused for a moment, the awkwardness setting in far too quickly, so he very nearly blurted out, “I don’t know what you have next, but would you want to grab some coffee or something?”

He certainly hadn’t been planning on that himself, so he felt even more out of place than he usually did while waiting for an answer. Had he asked Barry out on a date? Would he take it as a continuation of this? He wasn’t sure what he was going for. It had just happened.

He was seconds away from taking it back, explaining it away and writing it off as nothing. Telling Barry it should be forgotten about, but he was spared that. At least he hoped it was a relief.

“Sure.”

* * *

 

Barry answered before the question had fully settled in. Coffee. Now. He wanted to do this, to keep it going, and he had time so of course he was going to say yes. Whatever it meant, he wanted every chance to spend more time with Cisco. Distance was overrated, and he’d asked.

Time. That was just it. He checked his phone and his eyes widened, not realizing just how long it had taken him. The only reason he ever made it to his elective was because this ended early. He’d been asking himself why he’d let Iris talk him into taking sociology with her since the start, but today that was only amplified. Well, she was going to be the one to get him out of it today.

“Wait, no. That was a mistake, I have a class.” He was not doing well with that today. Surely, it was only hurting him. “I can get out of it pretty easily, but I need to send a text off if that’s okay?” He held up his phone as if it wasn’t an entirely obvious concept. “Then I’m good. Totally in the clear. We can head out.”

_Coffee with Cisco. Cover for me?_

He sent it off and smiled up at him, entirely confident in the answer he was going to receive.

“Look, I don’t—”

“It’s not a big deal. Call it my turn to ditch one.” His phone buzzed in his hand, and he smiled widely. “See, all set.”

_Get some ;)_

Barry was incredibly glad he checked that before holding it up again, sliding his phone into his pocket immediately. He didn’t need to explain away that.

* * *

“You are not telling me that you prefer _Star Wars_ to _Star Trek_ ,” Cisco said, completely serious and almost offended by how hard Barry was laughing at his reaction. He had his priorities in order unlike his apparently insane lab partner. “I’m not going to tell you they’re not excellent movies, but there are generations, layers, far more involved worlds. _Star Wars_ sticks to what they know, and they do it well, but it’s the same.”

“It is _not_ the same,” Barry answered, still laughing as Cisco grew even more indignant.

“It’s one long arc. And don’t try to me episode seven changed anything except character names. Not to mention the whole trilogy you’d rather forget.”

“It’s not that bad—and like you don’t have things you’d rather pretend don’t exist.” That shut Cisco right up, and he took a long drink from his cup, trying to hide his smile this time.

It had started out a bit awkward, the two of them feeling each other out in a setting that wasn’t a classroom. The first couple of times had been talking about assignments and classes, but slowly they had branched into other topics, transitioning them from classmates to friends in a matter of days. With every meeting—not dates, definitely not dates—less work was done, but he couldn’t say he minded. Not that part.

Four coffees and two actual study trips to the library later, he was in even deeper than he was before. Caitlin was quickly becoming insufferable with her winks and nudges, but he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He hadn’t wanted to make lab uncomfortable, but that felt like nothing compared to how little he wanted to ruin this.

February of his freshman year with midterms right around the corner, he finally had another friend. He and Caitlin had bonded at orientation and been side by side other since, and he had Ronnie by association, but he was thrilled to have another person. A misstep could mean having to let go of that which he wasn’t prepared to do. He liked how things were. He might like them a bit more if there _was_ more, but he was happy.

“You are so wrong. Just wait.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” Barry replied, still grinning.

“I’m up for this challenge.”

* * *

 

Barry had given Cisco his phone number. For questions and emergencies, obviously. When he was running late or forgot where they were hanging out this time. That sort of thing, nothing more.

Until he broke that rule. Kind of.

It was definitely an emergency. Sure, most would say he was being dramatic about it, but from his position lying on the floor of his dorm, it looked much closer to a real one than his usual “ _SOS what problems do we have?_ ” texts.

“Open,” he called at the tentative knock on his door. He suddenly felt incredibly stupid in doing it, but it was too late now. Iris had refused to help him, very much setting him up. She had her topic picked for their final sociology final and wouldn’t so much as give him a hint as to what it was. He still wasn’t sure if it had been sarcastic advice or not, but with a matter of hours until his proposal was due, he found himself texting Cisco, asking him to come over. This was a problem best handled in person, after all.

“Is everything okay? Why are you on the floor?” Cisco asked, a note of panic in his voice. Maybe Barry had played it up a bit too much.

“I have no ideas for my final project in sociology. The floor was the only place I’d yet to try,” he answered, pushing himself up on his hands. He should really get up the rest of the way, but he was finally comfortable. “You’re welcome to join me here or pick somewhere more comfortable like the bed or my chair.” The last was definitely a hasty addition, realizing what he said. He had been stressing over this for far too long.

* * *

 

_Crisis in progress. Need help. Harmon, Room 332. Just knock._

Upon receiving the text, Cisco had shut books on top of notes, shoving all of it into his bag in a hasty pack job to get over there as soon as he could. If Barry needed him for something so important, he was there.

_At the lib, heading over_

He fired off the message on the way out, realizing he hadn’t actually been to Harmon before. He hadn’t been to _Barry’s_ dorm before. His pace was only quickened by curiosity at that point.

Cisco had to hold back a chuckle when he walked in, everything from Barry’s spot on the floor to how worried he’d been over what turned out to be just an assignment getting to him. He opted for sitting across from him, depositing his bag next to him and rummaging through it as he spoke.

“Sociology? You know I’m not exactly in that.”

“I know, I know, but I’m out of options. I’ve left it for the last minute, and I have no ideas,” Barry replied with a groan.

“Iris?” He’d learned the names of the people in Barry’s life. He’d even met her a few times, finding her great and ready to gang up on Barry.

“She won’t help. She’s had hers set for weeks, I’m sure, and she won’t so much as throw me a bone.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised,” Cisco said with a chuckle, finally coming across a bag of licorice. He pulled one out for himself only to have his offer to Barry waved off. “Alright, walk me through it.”

“I have,” he paused to check his watch, “two hours and seventeen minutes to come up with a proposal for how the study of social issues would differ between our world and two fictional worlds. It’s better if they’re connected in some way.”

* * *

 

By the time Barry finished his explanation, Cisco was staring at him like he was an absolute moron. He rubbed at the side of his head uncomfortably, waiting for him to say something—anything and break the silence.

“You’re kidding me,” he finally said, not helping Barry whatsoever.

“What?” he asked. “Am I screwed? Should I drop the class now?”

“Nah. How long have you got to do it?”

“The month and change until the end of finals,” he answered. It seemed like more than enough, but what if it wasn’t? It looked like he was going to be stuck with an uninteresting topic at this point.

“Easy.” Cisco nodded to himself, gears clearly turning and making Barry feel weirdly left out considering this was his class.

“Look, I’m really hurting here, and it’s not proving to be that easy? I mean, I get that it could be and no offense to you, but if I wasn’t struggling, you wouldn’t be here and I’d be a few hundred words into a proposal.” He took a breath. “If you don’t want to help, that’s fine, but I don’t have time for this right now. I asked because I value your opinion. You’re brilliant, smarter than I am, and I could really use your help.”

“Dude, stop,” Cisco said, still looking amused but apparently having reached a point of understanding as to where he was at. He reached out and placed his hands on the sides of his arms, causing Barry to look up and really meet his eyes. This was new. Casual contact in his dorm nonetheless. He wished he had other intentions than classwork.

“You’re doing _Star War_ s and _Star Trek_.”

* * *

 

Time was passing too quickly. Cisco was finally getting interviews for internships that would keep him in Central City instead of sending him back home to Detroit. He could have found one there with relative ease, but despite the perfect grades he was looking at, he knew he would be spending the entire break coming in second to Dante again. He was fighting for his chance to escape that. If he only had to spend major holidays with his family, all the better.

He was sitting at a table in a study room across from Barry when he saw it. He was supposed to be finishing his last round of assignments and starting in on the finals that were only a week away. Instead, he was refreshing his email every five minutes to see absolutely nothing new.

He had no reason to believe anything was coming that day, but it didn’t matter if it was gut feeling or sheer boredom that had inspired it once the note appeared. Every note from STAR Labs came as a shock. Not to Caitlin, who had been picked up by Mercury almost immediately, but Cisco never thought he had a chance with the institute. Then he had a phone interview. Then a follow up in person. Now this.

_Mr. Ramon,_

_It is our pleasure to offer you a temporary position in our engineering department._

“No way,” he muttered, not realizing he actually vocalized it as he read that first sentence over and over, unable to make it any further. “No _way._ ”

“What is it?” Barry asked, looking up from his own work.

Cisco could barely remember to breathe, let alone how to form the words to explain what was in front of him. It was a task for him to switch from staring dumbly at his computer screen to staring at Barry. He barely registered when he stood, suddenly reading over his shoulder with widening eyes.

“Cisco,” he breathed, looking down at him. “That’s amazing.”

Barry pulled him into a hug which he was slow to respond to, caught up in it all.

“You’re incredible,” he said softly, awe in his eyes and making Cisco feel like he really was. He always had to be proud of himself, be satisfied with reaching his own goals. To have someone else looking at him like that, to have _Barry_ looking at him like that. It brought things to a deeper level. He hadn’t known just how much he wanted this side of it as well.

“We have to celebrate,” Barry said, apparently unfazed by Cisco’s inability to fully react.

He managed a nod, only able to think again when Barry had put a couple feet of distance between them.

“I think I know exactly how.”

* * *

 

Cisco had a point. No matter how great the news one, neither of them exactly had time to celebrate in the moment. A break was the most they could spare, but after their last class the movie marathon was on. Barry had tracked down his favorite junk foods, laying out a full spread on his desk.

With his roommate choosing to spend the night before their free reading day out partying, Barry was able to move his monitor onto the bed across from his, allowing for comfort. A cable ran to his computer, everything they could possibly want loaded up and ready to play, Cisco’s choice.

It didn’t come as a surprise that it was _Star Trek_. They had watched a number of them together, picking each one apart along with seven _Star Wars_ movies and a drunken night for the Christmas special. His paper was coming together nicely, but tonight wasn’t for research. It was as Cisco said: _The Wrath of Khan_ was meant to be experienced.

And experiencing it, he was. Maybe not in the way Gene Roddenberry intended, but he was having an experience all the same.

There was no talking over this one, but Cisco seemed to know every word and Barry was fascinated. He’d barely made it twenty minutes before he completely abandoned watching the screen and switched to watching his friend. He mouthed each line along with it, silhouetted in the dark room by the blue of the screen, leaving Barry utterly stricken by him.

He thought he had put this aside. His feelings for his best friend pushed back into the recesses of his mind to make it work, but it all came rushing back over the course of an hour, every scene hitting him harder.

They were celebrating: the end of the semester, that Cisco had his dream internship, that they were both staying. There was a lot to come with finals on the immediate horizon, but none of it seemed to matter in that moment. The only thing Barry could think of was the beautiful man sitting right up against him on his bed, only amplified by his passions, no matter what they were.

It took him a few seconds to realize Cisco had paused the movie, not putting together it had stopped until he turned to him with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face.

“I have been—and always will be—your friend,” he said quietly.

Barry’s heart thudded loudly in his chest. He knew what he should say. Live long and prosper or some other affirmation that he saw him in the same way.

Instead, he put a hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss him. There was a beat of what seemed to be hesitation, so he pulled away, lingering for a second to preserve the moment before opening his eyes and searching Cisco’s face.

“Is that…okay?” Barry asked, entirely ready to be rejected.

Cisco looked a bit shocked for an instant, raising his hand to his lips and staring at Barry for a moment. He was about to back off further when in lieu of an answer, his friend grabbed his shirt in one hand and put the other behind his neck, kissing him far more intensely, giving Barry his turn to be surprised.

He responded better, though, threading a hand through his soft hair and pushing him back.

When he pulled back for a breath, Cisco smiled coyly, finally giving him his answer to earn a playful swat.

“A whole new world.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated. I'm typically one to attempt multichapter fics, so pacing a oneshot ended up being a blend of time. Any input would be great, be it things enjoyed or that could be improved, if I decide to go this route again. Notes are a struggle at two in the morning.


End file.
